quality of life

This is What We Have Been Forced to Resort To?

By Prince Of Petworth

What ever happened to the idea of placing more garbage cans on main city streets? It looks to me like there are only garbage cans around us near metro stops. So this is a phenomenon I have noticed lately. Individual home owners have been forced to put up plastic bags on their fences in the hopes that people will put their garbage in the bag instead of on the street. From this picture it looks like it is working. But it seems very unfortunate that the onus to keep the street clean has fallen on the home owner. How hard could it be to get more garbage cans on the street? Wait, don’t answer that…

Good Stoop for Stoopin’

By Prince Of Petworth

Stoopin’ has now been adopted as a proper verb here on PoP. I believe it is the great pastime. When I was growing up we used to play curb ball but our neighborhoods seem to be perfect for Stoopin’. This is a great example of of a perfect stoop for stoopin’. It is the “double wide” of stoops. A perfect spot to people watch on 14th St. with the beverage of your choice.

I’ve solved our garbage problem

By Prince Of Petworth

So it has finally occurred to me how to solve our garbage woes. People seem to feel very comfortable throwing their garbage in tree boxes. (A guy in Shaw even has a whole blog about it.) So the solution is easy. Why don’t we just paint tree box scenes on the garbage cans? At the very least I think it would be a fascinating social experiment. Pretty clever huh?

Reason #96 I love our neighborhood

By Prince Of Petworth

How is possible to live right in the middle of the city and sit outside on your porch and listen to the crickets? How is that possible? To make things even better, a neighbor across the street came out to sit on his porch and listen to the baseball game on his radio. I swear sometimes I feel like I can understand people reminiscing about the 50s. Sitting on the porch, drinking a beer, listening to a baseball game and with the crickets chirping in the background. And there aren’t even any mosquitoes tonight!

No Surrender

By Prince Of Petworth

Is a gallon of deet not strong enough? Does lighting citronella candles and greasing up with Skin So Soft just get our mosquitoes in the mood? Well, if we use the solution pictured then haven’t we let the mosquitoes win?

Is She Crazy?

By Prince Of Petworth

I’ve always enjoyed reading Angela Valdez over at the Washington CityPaper. On Friday she recounts a walk home from a bar to her house in Petworth. Read the post here.

She wrote “We walked north on Sherman till we got to her place and then I decided to shortcut on Georgia to get myself home. I quickly realized I should have turned back to Sherman.”

This is something I’ve always tried to figure out but I’ve never gotten much feedback: what are the “rules” for walking home in the evening? Is there a cut off for when it wouldn’t be advisable to walk home? Is it ok to walk home late at night if you are not alone? Should Georgia Ave be avoided? I have written about this before and I’ve said everyone has their own comfort levels but surely there are general rules to be followed. I walked home last night at around midnight and I felt perfectly safe but I was not on Georgia Avenue. What walking home guidelines do you follow?

"Jesus wasn’t from Puerto Rico"

By Prince Of Petworth

Petworth Preachers, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

I’m not exactly sure what that means but we now have our very own preachers outside the metro! The blog Frozen Tropics has discussed this issue in the H Street area.

All I know is I kept hearing Jesus this and Jesus that and then something about Jesus and Puerto Rico before I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable. Also the fact that they were standing on some sort of box when screaming about Jesus was less than pleasant. Now, I’m all for Jesus but this seemed to be a bit excessive. This was about 8pm outside the metro. Has anyone seen this before?

Take His Rook, Take His Rook!

By Prince Of Petworth

So I walked out of Taco Bell and came upon a lively game of street chess on 14th Street. And let me tell you – eating two meximelts while watching a lively game of street chess rivals a live Nats game any day of the week except Sunday of course.

Now That’s A Tomato Garden!

By Prince Of Petworth

Yesterday was one of those beautiful Petworth days in all respects. The weather was beautiful and I decided to walk down to U Street to meet some friends for dinner. So as I’m walking down New Hampshire I notice a big spray of water coming from the alley. To satisfy my curiosity I had to check it out. I venture into the alley and I see an older gentleman probably in 60s watering his garden. My eyes go wide as I see all of the tomatoes he has successful grown. He is very skeptical when I approach him. He looked at me like I was crazy as I was ogling his garden. I asked him if I could take a picture of his garden. He replied “I don’t care, take a picture of whatever you want”, in not the most friendly tone. I was a little taken back. I quickly told him how amazing I thought his garden looked. At this point his eyes lit up for just a second and you could see him swell with pride. I then told him my woes about growing only two tomatoes and how they both got eaten by an animal. Without hesitating he walked over and plucked a handful of gorgeous red tomatoes and insisted that I take them. He told me he lived on the block for 35 years and has always had a garden. I was grateful for his generosity. I had so many more questions I wanted to ask him but he walked back to continue watering his garden. Well, I hope to catch him again to learn more about his gardening technique and to learn more about his experiences living in Petworth for the past 35 years. And yes, the tomatoes were delicious!

Mmm, Tomatoes…

By Prince Of Petworth

I was given a handful of tomatoes by a complete stranger. (See above post)

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